Overview, Design and Features

One of Huawei's Finest

We last saw the Huawei MediaPad during CommunicAsia 2011 where the company proudly unveiled the device. Back then, the Huawei MediaPad created waves in the tablet scene for three key achievements. For starters, it is the world's first 7-inch Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet (but not the first to be available locally). It is also the first tablet to come with a dual-core 1.2GHz processor at a time when the rest of the tablets were equipped with 1GHz dual-core processors. Lastly, it is the slimmest and lightest tablet by Huawei.

Design

One striking aspect of the MediaPad's design is its aluminum unibody design. The metallic build gives a very solid feel to the device, putting the MediaPad in the league of well-built tablets such as the Apple iPad 2. What's even more impressive is that Huawei managed to keep the MediaPad at a feather lightweight of 390g, which is less than the 410g of the Acer Iconia Tab A100 closed in a plastic shell. The rounded corners of the MediaPad also provide better handling, and the lightweight form factor also helps in one-handed operation of the slate.

Features

There is hardly anything else in the world that is moving at a faster pace than the tablet scene. While it was announced in June 2011, the Huawei MediaPad was indeed the first tablet to come with Android 3.2. Fast forward to the present, Huawei is late in making the MediaPad commercially available, hence losing its attractiveness as a compelling purchase. Nevertheless, Android 3.2 is still the latest Honeycomb version available on tablets if you discount the impending arrival of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of the year on the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime.

We have covered Android 3.2 in detail over the course of several reviews, notably on the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. As such, you can find out more about Android 3.2 over here. For those who need a quick refresher on the new features of Android 3.2, they are:

Bug fixes

Performance boosts

Compatibility zoom mode

User interface improvements

Connectivity to various USB accessories

Of the various new features introduced in Android 3.2, the compatibility zoom mode is more relevant for the Huawei MediaPad. It lets users choose between Stretch and Zoom options when accessing apps that are developed specifically for use on mobile phones. Compatibility zoom improves the usability of such apps on the bigger screens of tablets.